slow burn

See synonyms for slow burn on Thesaurus.com
nounInformal.
  1. a gradual building up of anger, as opposed to an immediate outburst: I did a slow burn as the conversation progressed.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use slow burn in a sentence

  • The blows were weak, for I was still dazed; but they served, together with the slow burn of my anger, greatly to steady me.

    Gold | Stewart White

British Dictionary definitions for slow burn

slow burn

noun
  1. a steadily penetrating show of anger or contempt

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Idioms and Phrases with slow burn

slow burn

Slowly increasing anger. It is often put as do a slow burn, meaning “gradually grow angrier,” as in I did a slow burn when he kept me waiting for three hours. The burn in this idiom comes from burn up in the sense of “make furious.” The term was first cited in 1938 and was closely associated with comedian Edgar Kennedy.

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.